Tripura aims to scale up orchid cultivation

Agartala: Tripura administration has launched a programme to promote commercial orchid cultivation, aiming to enhance the state’s horticultural economy alongside agricultural production, agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister Ratan Lal Nath on Friday, reports Biswendu Bhattacharjee.
The state’s horticulture and soil conservation department, working with ICAR-National Research Centre for Orchids, Sikkim, conducted training for 3,000 farmers. They distributed 12,000 premium Dendrobium orchid planting materials and coco blocks valued at Rs 35 lakh recently. “Tripura is home to hundreds of orchids abandoned in the forest areas. Not only in domestic use, those orchids have export potential and we are exploring it further,” Nath said.